Ella, Mekdes & Biniyam: Why I am Grateful Today

Labor Day (and September 7th) marked the 2 year anniversary of day our blissful life was jarred with the news that Ella's belly pain and fever was more than just a virus, not the appendicitis we had feared, but a nasty cancerous tumor growing on her kidney.
Yesterday as I washed dishes I listened to my girls, full of giggles, playing in the living room and was overwhelmed with gratefulness to God for all the blessings I see as I look back to this time 2 years ago.

- Ella's 1st complaint of belly pain and a low fever happened on the day Greg and I were leaving for Ethiopia to bring Biniyam home (6 weeks before diagnosis.) What if the tumor had been found then, how would we have gotten Biniyam? And what if it had been found while we were in Ethiopia? Oh, I can't imagine how hard it would have been to be so far from her at that time!

- The fact that Ella got her fever and lethargy on a holiday expedited her diagnosis because we brought her to her the ER. Had it been a regular week day I would have called her pediatrician, maybe got an appointment that day, maybe been asked about constipation and told to watch her. Either way Greg would not have been there, and we needed him with us!

- The most vividly painful moment for me was in the emergency room at Children's when the oncologist came to admit her and told us that the first place that the cancer would metastasizes would be to her lungs. I remember reaching and grabbing Greg's hand and I don't know if I said it out loud or only with my eyes, but my thought was that it was in her lungs. She had complained twice that week of pain in her upper chest, pointed to her lungs and said it "it hurts here" and I had thought it was weird, not a usual place for a kid to complain about, but cancer, no, that wasn't even a thought that passed through my mind, I had told her she must have pulled a muscle. Yet in the ER when the doc mentioned mets to the lungs the fear gripped me, her complaints made sense. I am so grateful that I can say that those were the worst 24 hrs of my life thus far, because once we received the CT results, then ultrasound results and finally biopsy results, the news kept getting better.

I truly believe that a miracle took place the night we entered the ER and people across the country began to pray for Ella. I believe that our prayers were answered and that Ella's tumor was shrunk back to a stage 1.

Thank you Lord!

We also rejoice in this, that last week when we went to children's for Ella to get an ultrasound and x-ray everything came back clean and healthy. Praise the Lord!

Ella doesn't realize the significance of this week, so if you asked her about life she'd most likely tell you that she (finally!) lost her first tooth!

or that she was a summer superstar reader

Or that there are fairies living in the fairy garden that she, Mekdes, and Nana planted last week!

Or the biggest news, That today Ella started 1st grade!!

Ella was a bit nervous about starting 1st grade, even though she goes to a montessori school and 9 out of the 10 kids in her class went to kindergarten with her.